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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24002707">Unknown And In-Between</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius'>Zarius</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who &amp; Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, F/M, Implied Relationships, Post-Episode: s12e05 Fugitive of the Judoon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:09:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>637</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24002707</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternative take on The Doctor's conversation with Ruth during "The Timeless Children" (contains some Thirteen/Master fluff)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Clayton/The Doctor | Ruth Clayton, The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unknown And In-Between</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Oh great, what are you doing here? Or are you the matrix playing more games with me?" The Doctor said as Ruth, an incarnation that was shrouded in mystery, joined her within the matrix, a realm where logic and coherence was in short supply.</p><p>"Don't ask me, I'm as lost as you in here. Maybe you just summoned me"</p><p>"Where do you fit into all of this? Were you me all that time ago? Were all my memories of you erased? Did they force me back into becoming a child? How many more of me are out there?" she asked, her face visibly red with anger and confusion.</p><p>Ruth took off her glasses and gave her future a disciplined glance</p><p>"I don't have all the answers, but say I did, would they even help?"</p><p>"Of course they would. Every little helps" The Doctor replied.</p><p>"Have you ever been limited by who you were before?" Ruth asked.</p><p>The Doctor felt her anger subside, there was logic in what she said, a first for the Matrix.</p><p>"Just one last question, you don't have to answer...knowing this place, it might not even matter..."</p><p>"Ask away" Ruth said, putting her glasses back on.</p><p>"That life you led on Earth, with your companion...Lee wasn't it? Tell me, until the Judoon came...were you happy?"</p><p>"I don't think you've earned the right to assess that part of my life. You need to figure everything else out about me first" Ruth answered.</p><p>The Doctor tried to make a case for her question.</p><p>"It's just...I have someone, had someone, we had someone, that always came back to us when we felt like we were the only ones out there, a friend from the Academy...more than a friend actually, how many times did we go there? To the Academy? How many friends did I meet and lose before I found him?"</p><p>The Doctor made sure not to tell her it was her dearest enemy, Koschei, she was referring to, on the off chance this was a record of Ruth that she would be trying to access somewhere along the back-end of her timeline.</p><p>"Again, I can't say, so much of me is lost in here, lost even to the people I worked for...unknown, as well as anything in between, but I can tell just from your enthusiasm, coupled with the pain in your voice, that he means a great deal to you, and also that you somehow lost touch with him"</p><p>"You're right, exactly right, I did lose him...a long time ago, and yet he's always close by, he has such a rage about him, I always hoped he'd find a way of calming it, ideally, it needn't be a horrible act, an atrocity, but I suppose it always has to be in the end with him. I wished the source of his calm would be me. Just see the universe, the farthest planet, and reach for it, never to burn it. I came so close once, there's good in him, I know it, if I had more time, I could extract the fire"</p><p>"I look forward to meeting him one day" Ruth said</p><p>"Thanks, well, I'd best be off, a Master to stop"</p><p>"How do you plan on getting out?" Ruth asked.</p><p>"I've denied the reality of the Matrix once, I can do it again, this place does have a tendency to blow the mind, might as well return the compliment" The Doctor replied, and conjured forth a mental barrage of memories, past, present, unknown and in between, to short-circuit her Matrix prison and end her confinement.</p><p>Upon her recovery, she would head towards the fire in her friend, her enemy, her hearts.</p><p>Whether to extract it, or to extinguish him, depended on how much time she had left.</p>
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